Internet politics and digital divide issues: the
rising of a new electronic Aristocrats and electronic
Meticians.

Abstract:

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) from
the beginning of 1990 until today has brought important changes on
function and structure of both public sector and governments. Within the
framework of application and use of e-democracy, new technologies
enhance the citizens' democratic participation in public affairs,
by using e-voting, e-ballot, while by using email, citizens can develop
and consolidate the digital Ancient Agora by exchanging their views with
each other or with the elected representatives. Information systems and
Internet is today a powerful tool for governments and citizens aiming at
the collective decision-making and the reduction of democracy
shortcoming. This paper conclude that the access impossibility of
citizens to digital democracy services, in the form of digital divide,
can be easily compared with the right of vote in Ancient Athens, a right
that only privileged citizens had.

Computer and information science is constantly changing all social
activities, ever since its initial appearance in the 17th century as
calculating devices, up till the new generation of computers in 1950 and
up till today (1). This change is obvious not only to international
financial exchanges financial and political frames of each state (2).
The governing of a country, a definition that belongs to the wider
sector of political science, with the use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) is now adopting an electronic feature,
thus the definition e-governance mentions the appliance of new
technologies to political processes.

The first steps towards e-governance are fulfilled in 1993 in the
USA, under the Clinton presidency, when a huge governing program was
established, the so-called National Performance Review (NPR) that aimed
towards the use of informative systems in order to create a government
that would rule in low expenditure, still more effectively (3).

Apparently, since the creation of the Internet in 1960 until its
use upon the various governing methods in 1993 in the USA, all
governments use new technologies so as to achieve the most effective
operation of the public sector and the enforcement of
political-democratic procedures (4). E-Governance may give the force to
better the affairs among the public, enterprises and governments (5).
Researchers claim that it is a dynamic tool for the participation of the
public in the public matters and the collection of valuable demographic,
social and economical data that will lead to a successful and
transparent procedure of decisionmaking (6)

Background: The first type of democracy appeared in Ancient Athens
between 500-321 B.C. in the form of direct democracy. All modern
liberal-democratic systems are featured as it follows: the existence of
more than one political party, the open access to political processes
along with the open participial activity, the fixed and regular
performance of elections in order to elect representatives and also
respect the public's rights (7) Today's democratic governments
face issues of political corruption and apathy by all voters.

Anthony Giddens mentions that "Over the last few years,
governments face categories for corruption ... Despite their alleged
transparency, in many countries the liberal democratic institutions base
their function on backstage agreements and customary affairs" (8).
The use of ICT in political-democratic procedures along with the lowest
cost of the whole convention will save the public from excessive
expenditure. The Internet can give an end to the domination of
television and radio transmission that cut down political parties and
made the political procedure terribly expensive, should we consider the
capitals that had to be assembled (9). USA President Bill Clinton and
the Vice-President Al Gore would welcome the public's opinions by
the American citizens-voters with through e-mail and this lead to the
expansion of the citizens' political action (10). With the use of
e-mails the citizen is able to require information, submit questions and
comments or objections. The governments are able to create a new shape
and procedure for the participation of the public through electronic
meetings and discuss about future governing actions or evaluate the
public opinion upon social matters (11).

E-Governance has the power to create a new model of service supply,
where all social organizations are entitled to provide better quality of
services in a more modern way and eliminate the old-fashioned one way
affinity (us-versus - them) and create a new mutual affinity between the
government and the public, based on reliability and trust[12]. As for
the dispute about the consequences of the new technologies on democratic
procedures, any reliable remarks and results mostly depend on the level
and the degree that the government incorporates new technologies (13).

The rising of a new electronic Aristocrats and electronic
Meticians: Many countries are described by the weakness to embody
informative systems due to social, political and financial conditions.
This resulted in the imparity of access to the Society of Information
services, to the new digital economy and the procedure of economical
globalization. Nowadays, this imparity is called digital divide.

In his attempt to depict the digital divide better, Pascal Boniface
mentions that: "Poor countries are found bound by this global
economy, where new informative technologies are dominant. In 1999, a
report of a programme that belongs to the United Nations proves this
jostle. So, by offer 19% of the global population, 29 countries of the
Organization about Economical Partnership and Development cover the 91%
of the Internet users (Americans represent the 50%)" (14).

Imparities in access among the countries and citizens about
e-voting or the globalization process do exist nowadays. The inability
to access the electronic economic globalization and the electronic
democracy urges us to adopt an internationalized model of the ancient
market in Athens in an electronic pattern. During the ancient Athenian
democracy, aristocracy had only the right to vote and carry official
postulates and administrative places contrary to meticians, who were not
able to access democratic procedures and did not hold the right to vote.

The existence of the digital divide resulted in the creation of a
technological ruling class and the division of the countries-citizens
into two basic categories: the electronic aristocracy that is able to
access the services of the electronic democracy and the electronic
meticians. Electronic meticians (due to economical, social and political
conditions) cannot access the basic features of electronic democracy,
such as e-voting, unofficial electronic plebiscites for public opinion,
ecommunication with the elected representatives and regular screening of
the political affairs on the Internet. According to Noam Tsomski,
"There are two basic functions in a democracy, the skilled class
and the responsible people who have taken on the performing function,
which means that they think, draw and understand the public weal. Then
there is the giddy flock that also holds a place in the democracy. Its
role is to observe not to act" (15). Within an electronic
democracy, viewers are normally the public and the countries that are
described by the lower access degree in the Society of Information,
empowering the model of ancient Athenian market, which we consider to be
global. So, today there is a form of democracy, the electronic democracy
without electronic citizensdemocrats.

According to a survey held by Hansard Society on June 21-26, 2001
in Great Britain, only a small percentage of citizens-voters has access
to electronic democratic procedures and to digital political
information. This minority that has the access privilege consists of
people who belong to higher financial layers, have studied and received
a degree and are mostly young people: only one third of the participants
have access to the Internet and e-mail at home, 69% hold a cell phone,
32% use text messaging and 13% have access and use interactive services
of digital TV. Only 18% of the whole specimen of the asked ones used the
technologies that had to do with national elections in Great Britain, a
percentage that represents one fourth of the people aged less than 35
years old (16)

CONCLUSION

Within a constant changing and competitive international
environment, the modern democratic structures of states try to create
the suitable conditions for economic and political development, using
ICT as a factor of power and development.

Information systems and Internet is today a powerful tool for
governments and citizens aiming at the collective decision-making and
the reduction of democracy shortcoming. Within the framework of
application and use of e-democracy, new technologies enhance the
citizens' democratic participation in public affairs, by using
e-voting, e-ballot, while by using eemail, citizens can develop and
consolidate the digital Ancient Agora by exchanging their views with
each other or with the elected representatives. Modern countries and
international organizations through Task forces and economical policies
attempt to reduce the width of the digital divide. However, there are
still going to be economical-social imparities among the countries and
the public, concerning the quality of the Internet access (access speed
ISDN - ADSL and the possession of knowledge and use of ICT).

The access impossibility of citizens to digital democracy services,
in the form of digital divide, can be easily compared with the right of
vote in Ancient Athens, a right that only privileged citizens had. Thus,
we can now claim that nowadays, by the use and integration of new
technologies in modern democratic procedures, but also with the
impossibility of access to e-voting, the model of Ancient Athenian
democracy (Aristocrats and Meticians) reappears in a new electronic
form.